The Rural Voice, 1998-08, Page 701
1
People
OATI honours 16 Life Long Learners
The Ontario Agricultural
Training institute acknowledged 16
new Life Long Learners in Guelph
on June 24, 1998.
Three years ago OATI started the
Life Long Learner Certificate
program to reward participants who
show a real commitment to learning
and to recognize their achievement.
The recipients are Emily
Bottema, St. Marys; Rejean
Cardinal, Ste. Anne de Prescott;
Cindy Crevits, Delhi; David De
Leebeeck, Tillsonburg; Ted De Wit,
Dublin; Bill Garner, Englehart;
Ardiel Grieve, Stayner; Mary
Haugh, Listowel; Keith Howe,
Aylmer; Margaret May, Glencoe;
Laurie McLean, New Liskeard;
Kent Neeb, New Hamburg; S. 011a
Newton, Dalkeith; Grace Desch,
Wellesley; Alain Poirer, Lefaivre;
Margaret Scott, Stratford; Steven
Veldman, Embro.O
Jr. Farmer friendship lasts 25 years
Sometimes friendships made during Junior Farmer exchanges fade with the
years, but not the bond between Ian Grant of Teeswater and Dave Webster of
Scotland. Webster was recently on hand to help Grant with some of his farm
work, and to reminisce about their first meeting 25 years ago in 1973.
Webster, who owns a 170 acre cash crop farm about nine miles from the famed
St. Andrew's golf course in Scotland, was part of a six-month Junior Farmer
exchange program that brought him to the farm of Don and Chris Grant, Dave's
parents, 25 years ago. During his six months in Canada that year, Webster visited
several families across Ontario but he struck a real friendship with Ian Grant.
Since then Grant and Webster have kept in touch by telephone and Webster has
returned for week-long stays on three different occasions, including 19 years ago
when he brought his wife to Canada on his honeymoon. Grant credits Webster
for helping maintain the friendship. "David was always interested in just
whatever was happening," he told the Teeswater News in an interview. "For
friendships, it either is, or it isn't."
While Webster has been back to visit on three different occasions, Grant has
yet to visit Scotland. "He's been trying to get me there for the last 25 years,"
Grant said.
Coming back to Canada was an easy decision for Webster. "As hard as it is to
get here, as soon as you do it it's like you never left. It's just like home away
from home. I like the area. Of all the places I've visited, I like this the best. I
wouldn't mind if I was to retire to Teeswater."0
Pork Congress
awards go across
the province
Erica Mills of Wentworth County
swept the awards at the Ontario Pork
Congress in Stratford. She won the
Junior Barrow Show, the President's
Cane award for the Grand Champion
Showman and the Lyle Hellman
Memorial Award. Reserve Grand
Champion was awarded to Jennifer
Smith from Elgin County.
Erica's family also took home
Grand Champion for the group of
three barrows from a county. Reserve
Grand Champion went to the
Mueller and Guessinghaus families,
both from Waterloo county.
Most Effective Exhibit Awards
went to Stratford's Daco
Laboratories for their indoor exhibit
and to Sebringville's Luckhart
Transport for their outdoor display.0
Gerry Horst joins
Fergus OMAFRA office
Gerry Horst has joined Bea
Gosselin as rural community advisor
working out of the Fergus office.
Horst has worked with OMAFRA
for 14 years, since graduating from
the University of Guelph in 1984.
Having worked in Brant, Prince
Edward, Huron, Lambton and
Oxford Counties, he most recently
worked in Guelph where he
administered the province's Rural
Job Strategy Investment Fund.O
Legendary fiddler remembered with Pioneer award
Legendary Monkton-area fiddler
Archie Mann was remembered when
members of his family received a
Pioneer Award from the Bam Dance
Historical Society in a ceremony in his
hometown on June 27.
Earl Heywood, primary mover in
the Barn Dance Hall of Fame,
remembering the stars of the CKNX
Travelling Barn Dance, presented the
award to Archie Mann's son Bob and
to Mary Beth Mann, widow of his
other son Bill (who was posthumously
awarded the Huron Federation Award
for contribution to agriculture in 1990).
Unable to attend was his daughter
Marion Roberts.
Archie Mann was born in a log
house near Moncrieff in Huron County
in 1902, and lived on the farm until he
retired to Listowel in 1978 and turned
the farm over to Bill and Mary Beth.
The son of Scottish immigrants, he
learned to play both the bagpipes and
the fiddle without benefit of a teacher.
He played in the Brussels Pipe Band
for many years.
In the 1940s he joined Don
Robertson and the Ranch Boys, one of
the favourite groups in the Barn Dance,
as a fiddler. The group travelled to
dance halls as many as five nights a
week but Saturdays were reserved for
the Bam Dance.
Even after he left The Ranch Boys
and stopped farming, Archie continued
to entertain at family dances, in nursing
homes and at community events such
as Listowel's Paddyfest.
In 1990 Archie Mann was inducted
into the Fiddle Country Heritage Club
at a surprise gathering held in St.
Catharines.
He died in Listowel on November
17, 1996 at age 94.
At the Monkton ceremony a tribute
was read by Hugh Elder a former
member of the Ranch Boys.0